


Lines from an unwritten book

by Lindenharp



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Episode Related, Episode: s04e09 Forest of the Dead, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-08
Updated: 2010-07-08
Packaged: 2017-10-10 10:59:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/99007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lindenharp/pseuds/Lindenharp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest Library in the Universe. Look me up."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lines from an unwritten book

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't help speculating: what would you find if you _did_ look up the Doctor in the Library?

"I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest Library in the Universe. Look me up."

The Doctor, "Forest of the Dead"

How many books have been written about the Doctor? There is no simple answer to that question. There are hundreds of biographies about each of his incarnations. Other books focus on his various roles (cf. Time's Champion, Defender of Earth, the Oncoming Storm, etc.). A comprehensive bibliography of Doctoriana would have to include biographies of his many Companions and others whose lives intersected his timeline. The Library is fortunate in possessing one of the few privately-printed copies of the autobiography of Harriet Jones; Jehil Mhrblxx's acclaimed _Lethbridge-Stewart: A Life of Duty_, as well as Adam Mitchell's controversial _The Doctor and Me: Twenty Hours in the TARDIS_. Add in histories of the worlds he has saved and/or destroyed, textbooks of temporal mechanics, and extracts from the Torchwood archives, and the total is somewhere in the tens of thousands. (n.b. This does not include books in the Library's Gallifreyana section; as no one has succeeded in translating them, it is unknown how many of these rare volumes mention the Doctor.)

It is entirely beyond the scope of this guide to list derivative works based on the Doctor's lives and deeds, such as _Find Your Inner Companion_, _A Better Way to Live: Spiritual Secrets of The Lonely God_, _The Jelly Baby Diet_, and _Women Who Run With the Time Lord_ (Oprah Book Club selection for June 2017). Likewise, we will not attempt to include the vast body of fiction, drama, and poetry that has been generated over the millennia. These range from David Russell's lyrical _Still Point of the Turning World_ (Man Booker Intergalactic Prize of 3578) to imagined sexual escapades of such frequency, duration, and complexity that even a Time Lord might find his hearts failing under the strain.

A sacred text from the Doctor's favourite planet contains the following warning: "Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body." It would take decades to read and absorb all of the most relevant material about the Doctor; nevertheless, a legion of scholars have made it their life-work to do so. They have identified the core titles which are required reading for anyone who wishes to have more than a superficial understanding of the Last of the Time Lords (see Appendix 42).

For those who find even that short list daunting, I can find no better encouragement than the following words from Professor Stephen Harris, current Harkness Scholar at the University of New Oxford:

"The Doctor said, 'All sentient life forms are our kith'. The rest is commentary; now go and study".

From the preface to _An Annotated Bibliography of Doctoriana_, R.T.D. Lambert, ed., (New Oxford: University of New Oxford Press, 8746)


End file.
